Doctor of Nature!
by Ghenwa Kataya
“I want to be a doctor!” That was my usual answer to the childhood question, ”What do you want to be when you grow up? “. My passion for science and for helping people was the motivation behind it.
In 2015, I started my university studies in biochemistry as a pre-med degree. I noticed during my studies that many diseases have a common cause, which is environmental hazards. Environmental exposure to pollutant in the air, water, and soil have been shown to influence mortality and the incidence and severity of many chronic diseases. Moreover, climate change-related disasters, such as heat waves, floods, and more, have a devastating effect on human health and well-being and have led to more deaths (1).
That said, I then thought: isn’t it more efficient to treat and eliminate the cause of the disease instead of treating the symptoms using chemicals? For this reason, I decided to become a doctor, but this time a doctor for nature, to help people by eliminating and treating the pollution source.
A few years later, I got my bachelor's degree in biochemistry. I decided to follow my passion for the environment and nature, so I started my new journey in environmental engineering studies. During this period, I got to know more about the environmental problems that my country, Lebanon, was facing and the impact of climate change on the country, the people, and the resources.
Lebanon is known, in the region, for its natural wealth and beauty. With unparalleled green expanses and a history stretching as far back as the earliest of human activity, the country is littered with small natural treasures. Also, it is a country known for its abundant water resources (2).
Despite the country's rich nature, Lebanon faces several environmental threats, including air and water pollution, with a rise in cancer rate due to pollution and risks associated with climate change, such as land degradation and changes in the precipitation pattern, which treats mainly the agricultural sector (3,4).
And on top of all these problems comes the waste crisis. Lebanon’s waste crisis news has occupied the national and international headlines for a long period. The waste crisis was mainly due to a lack of sustainable waste management plans (5). Waste was dumped without treatment or burned open-air, causing damage to groundwater, soil, and air, while contributing to greenhouse gases emission, in addition to causing health issues. So, I took it upon myself to focus on this important topic and to find a sustainable solution to protect the beautiful nature of Lebanon.
Figure 1. Biochar produced from olive waste at 400 °C at the Lebanese university laboratories. Beirut, 2022 (By Ghenwa kataya)
In 2020, I started preparing for my master's thesis. My choice for the research topic was biomass valorization, in other words, organic waste valorization, since 52% of Lebanon’s waste is organic waste (6). During my research, I succeeded in converting banana peels into higher-value products via carbonization or thermal degradation in the absence of oxygen. The resulting product is called biochar, a charcoal-like product.
Biochar was applied to remove chromium, a heavy metal, from water. The experiment was successful, and it shows that organic waste has the potential to be applied as a natural-based solution for water treatment. But this is not the only application for Biochar. Biochar has great potential to be applied as a soil amendment as well (7).
With these facts and with the emerging economic crisis that affected the prices of fertilizers in Lebanon, which forced the farmers to quit the industry (8), I decided to scale up the project and turn it into a successful and sustainable business. So, after graduation, I co-founded a startup called Charpy for biochar products and services (9). The startup's main goal is to provide sustainable organic waste management and to valorize organic waste into higher-value products – biochar products – via carbonization technology.
Figure 2.Biochar produced from Banana peels at 400 °C at the Lebanese university laboratories.
Beirut, 2022 (By Ghenwa kataya).
As an organic soil amendment, biochar products are being marketed to farmers to help them reduce the cost of crop production by retaining water and nutrients in the soil, thereby reducing the need for water and fertilizer, as well as increasing crop yield and to make crops healthier by reducing the availability of pollutants and heavy metals for the plants in the soil (10,11). But the most amazing part of biochar is its carbon sequestration capacity, to removes carbon from the atmosphere and stores it in the soil.
So, biochar is a natural-based solution for organic waste treatment, chemical fertilizer use reduction, degraded and Polluted land, and to help farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change effects such as drought through sustainable agricultural practices.
The project idea won the first-place prize in the DAWERR ideation for waste management competition in 2021 (12). Currently, we are producing biochar on a small scale, in addition to spreading awareness of climate change through social media platforms and offering workshops to farmers to teach them about the impacts of climate change on agriculture, as well as how to take a sustainable approach. Positive impact and more engagement of farmers are shown day by day.
Finally, to my fellow youth worldwide, if things don’t happen by your wish, make them happen by your will. We should believe in our power and capability to make a change and to protect our nature and environment. Despite all the challenges and problems around, we should not give up because there is always a way, and we should always have the climate and the environment as a priority because it is our future and we are the future!
References
https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/public-health-and-environment
Lebanese Water Resources: A Potential to Alleviate Middle East Water Stress, Basil Mahfouz,2010.
https://www.anera.org/stories/beirut-air-pollution-causes-allergies-illness
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/09/lebanon-huge-cost-inaction-trash-crisis
Solid Waste Management in Lebanon: Challenges and Recommendations JEWM Solid Waste Management in Lebanon: Challenges and Recommendations, Ismail Abbas, 2019.
Multifunctional applications of biochar beyond carbon storage, Nanthi Bolan,2022.
https://beirut-today.com/2020/07/13/lebanese-farmers-dollar-crisis/
Startup’s website: https://charpy.one/
Joseph, et al. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138153
F. Razzaghi, et al. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114055
About
I am a Lebanese Entrepreneur, environmental engineer and biochemist. Co-founder of Charpy for biochar products and services (environmental and agricultural startup). Am Specialized in biomass valorization. And I was Selected to participate in the COP27 as MENA green youth leader under the green voices project, where I presented my initiative related to sustainable agricultural practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change effect. Working on and participated in many biomasses valorization-related projects such as converting food waste into compostable tableware as an alternative to single-use plastics and converting organic waste into organic soil amendment as an alternative to the expensive and pollutants chemical fertilizers.
Won the ten outstanding young person award in Lebanon, 2022 by the UNIC in the category of moral and environmental leadership. Also, working on raising environmental and climate change awareness through social media and workshops.